Georgia Gould elected to Labour’s National Policy Forum

THE election of the full JC9 slate to Labour’s National Executive Committee, and particularly that of Pete Willsman, last week led all the chat/anger/analysis about what the results of Labour’s summer elections meant.

So under the radar flew Georgia Gould, the Camden Council leader who joined National Policy Forum with barely a tweet from her comrades congratulating her. Usually, colleagues are far more gushing, although this might say more about what Labour members think of the NPF. It is the body which is supposed to ‘shape policy agenda’ but could possibly be disbanded after the party’s conference in Liverpool later this month, depending how the debate swings there.

Despite not being attached to a Corbynite slate, it would have been a surprise if Cllr Gould has not been elected. She was one of five local government reps on the internal ballot paper battling out four slots on the forum; not to belittle her success, but only one was ever going to miss out. As it happened Cllr Gould was the second most popular. Only councillors could vote in this section, for some added context.

Progress-backed Sucharita Sethi, the recent council candidate in the Belsize ward who has put herself forward for a couple of parliamentary seats, will not be joining her, however. In the Greater London region ballot, she came eighth out of eight.

Holborn and St Pancras campaigned Rebecca Filer, also recommended to members by Progress, narrowly missed out in the youth rep election in London. “I’m so proud to have fought a campaign promising real accountability and engagement with young Londoners,” she said afterwards.

So did everybody just vote depending on which wing of the party they felt most attached to? “Sad that people voterd for slates, because slates are for roofs,” said former mayor Richard Cotton for one, as he declared he had voted for all of the local voices above.